


puppy love

by LiveLaughLovex



Category: The Code (TV 2019)
Genre: Dogs, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:13:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27694645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiveLaughLovex/pseuds/LiveLaughLovex
Summary: Three months after they moved in together, they got a dog.They did not mean to get a dog. It was not something they planned for. That didn't keep it from being the best thing that ever happened to them (beyond meeting each other, of course).OR,A German Shepherd comes home from Afghanistan with a unit that's promptly banned from keeping him in the barracks; Harper does not know how to turn away from actual, literal puppy eyes; and though Abe might claim he's not a dog person, he's also not a very good liar.
Relationships: John "Abe" Abraham/Harper Li
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	puppy love

**Author's Note:**

> Look, I don't know what this is. I sat down to write a story, and an hour later, this is what I had. I hope you enjoy!

Three months after they moved in together, they got a dog.

They did not mean to get a dog. It wasn’t something they’d planned, or even really thought about. Abe’s landlord allowed pets, of course, for the low price of a single $200 pet deposit. One of his neighbors had a dog. Granted, the thing _hated_ Abe. It also barked at sweet Mrs. Smith from two doors down each time she walked past, though, and considering she was a ninety-year-old World War II widow who still baked the mailman cookies at least three times a week, _just because_ , Abe figured it was less because the thing was a good judge of character and more because it was just leery of all human beings in general.

Having lived amongst other human beings for a good thirty-four years, Abe couldn’t really say he blamed it.

 _But_ because of the dog next door – and also that drug dog who’d visited his school when he was in third grade, the one whose owner had _insisted_ the creature was friendly and then had to apologize profusely when, a moment later, it’d nearly taken Abe’s little, overly trusting hand right off his wrist – he’d never really thought about invoking the “rights to pet ownership” clause included in his lease.

He hadn’t considered that _Harper_ was thinking about it, either. Not until she arrived home one evening, a good two hours later than him despite the fact that they’d originally been coming from the exact same place, and introduced him to Nitro, a German Shepherd who had cycled home from Afghanistan with his unit a week earlier but found himself promptly homeless after being banned from the barracks.

 _It’ll just be until we find a good home for him,_ Harper had said, offering him her brightest, most innocent smile, and though Abe had agreed to the request immediately, he’d absolutely done so while thinking to himself _oh, you absolutely beautiful liar._

There was no way the dog would be going anywhere. He knew it the second he saw the look in Harper’s eyes. That dog would probably be their ringbearer, at some point down the road. He’d be introduced to every kid they brought home from the hospital and serve as their most fearsome guardian, even though both their prospective parents worked for the government and would know how to fire practically every weapon that could possibly be set in front of them.

So, he knew, even as Harper promised otherwise, that he’d never be free of the creature. But, when he looked into the dog’s dark brown eyes, he saw something of himself reflected back – that part of him he typically kept buried deep within, the part that had gone off to war and never come back from it, at least not _totally_ – and decided, almost instantly, that he didn’t mind much.

He could never abandon a comrade, even a canine one. _No man left behind_ and all, right?

(And yes, he was aware Nitro wasn’t a man. The sentiment remained.)

So, they adopted a dog. They said they were _fostering_ him, at first, because Harper was stubborn and did not want to admit that she’d been incorrect in her assessment that she’d be able to let him go to a good home, when the time came, but eventually Abe managed to convince her to change her wording, because _he did go to a good home, Harper, you were technically right_ , which was apparently all she had wanted to hear, seeing as she started referring to Nitro as _their dog_ literally five minutes later.

Abe tried to keep him off the furniture, at first. He did not succeed at it. Then, in a last-ditch effort, he tried to keep him off the bed, at the very least. He did not succeed at that, either. Harper and Nitro had ganged up on him when he’d tried, and while their canine roommate had a pretty good puppy-dog face when he put some effort into it, Harper’s pleading eyes had been getting Abe to go along with whatever it was she wanted from him since practically the moment he’d met her. With their combined efforts, he didn’t stand even the slightest chance.

So, he had a dog on his couch. And in his bed. And also just outside the bathroom door, on the days he decided to be especially cruel and leave the strange creature alone for the ten minutes it took for him to take a shower. He was fine with it, mostly. A little less fine with it on the mornings he nearly broke a leg trying to step over a sleeping Nitro in the middle of his hallway, but in general, he was alright with it.

Nitro was large, and strange, and sometimes acted more like a puppy than any actual puppy Abe had ever met. But sometimes, on the nights when Abe woke up with an unheard scream in his throat and not even the quiet, steady sound of Harper’s breathing next to him was enough to bring him back down to Earth, he would head out into the living room and turn on the television, find some old World War II documentary he tolerated only because it showcased a war he hadn’t personally fought, and just… _sit_ , for a while, just sit and _breathe_ , because that felt like something he didn’t do nearly enough, even nine years after he’d managed to escape the fighting. He’d settle in on the couch, and he would stare at the screen, absorbing about as much information as he would’ve if the thing had been blank, and then, ten or fifteen seconds later, without fail, the dog would come padding into the room.

He never made any noise when he did it, either. He just stared at Abe for several seconds, as if he knew exactly why one-half of his human parental unit was up, as if the same things kept him up, sometimes – and Abe wouldn’t be surprised, really, to find that they did – and then he’d hop up on the couch, lay his head in Abe’s lap, and stay there until Abe’s breathing evened out, or the captain fell asleep, or, in some cases, until he was just ready to go back to bed. And then, without fail, he would follow Abe’s lead – just as he always had.

And some mornings, when he woke on the couch, it was with Harper curled into his side, head resting on his shoulder or his chest, sound asleep despite the blaring sound of that documentary he’d hunted down continuing on in the background. Nitro was always still there, too, with his head resting on Abe’s leg or his feet or whichever part of his one owner that his other owner wasn’t presently draped atop of, and he always lifted his head to check on Abe, as if to make sure he’d survived the night with his sanity intact, and it was never until Abe looked directly at him that he laid back down with a huff and carried on with keeping watch over the two of them while Harper dreamed on.

Those days made clearer and clearer to him the fact that having a dog wasn’t just an alright thing. No, having a dog was good. Having a dog was great. And the idea of having Nitro around for the important moments – for the wedding and the babies and everything in between? Well, he quickly stopped seeing that as a burden, and instead came to see it for the privilege that it was.

Because having a dog was good, and this _particular_ dog was _especially_ good, and he would never forget either one of those things. Not ever again. 


End file.
